"That is good to hear. Work has been very difficult lately and food has been scarce. I think the villagers stole all the food, hiding it away so that we can't reach for it."
"Don't worry, mama. I don't mind walking to the other side of the village."
"But it is far," her mother muttered. Penny smiled reassuringly,
"A little work and time is something I can still spare for. You don't have to worry about it and let me take care," her mother nodded, her eyes looking at her before she went back to eating her food. Her mother had finished eating first and had taken utensils to be washed behind which had an extended roof.
Just when Penny was eating her hand suddenly froze with the quick flashes of images that came to move in front of her eyes. It was like a piece of memory she didn't know of and her hands turned cold.
Her mother was the one to come and fetch her empty plate, "Wash your hand. It isn't good to leave it dry," said her mother. Penny only nodded her mind in a daze where she wasn't able to form a proper sentence or speak a word right now.
Washing her hand and seeing her mother clean up the ground, she turned around. Walking to the desk and asking her mother, "Mama, I brought a small stone back home last week. Did you see it?" she asked, her head turned slightly to make sure her mother was still outside.
"It must be somewhere there on the bed. Where did you misplace it?" she heard her mother ask. Penny could feel her hands shake, her heartbeat rising and thudding as seconds flew by. She quickly reached for the parchment of papers which was lying in the drawer as expected. Pulling it out, she started to read,
'Incantation of the dead and bringing the death to step back into the world…' she couldn't read past more than one line when her mother pulled the parchment from her hand.
"I thought you were looking for your stone," her mother looked straight into her eyes, an evil smile which she wasn't familiar with her mother's face right now, "Your habit to snoop around is something I have been trying to get rid of. Every.Single.Time," her mother stressed.
Penny, unable to stop herself from asking, asked, "What are those?"
"Why don't you take a seat, Penny?" her mother said but Penny was shocked with what she just read. Her mother walked to the other side of the room, taking a handful of the ash powder and placing the parchment down on the table.
"No...you..you have been doing something to me," Penny could feel the goosebumps forming on all over her screen. She didn't remember everything but there were bits and pieces of her memory that had returned back which her mother had done something with.
Her mother smiled sweetly at her, "What do you mean I have done something to you? Do you even hear what you are saying," she then suddenly blew the powder from her hand, chanting and murmuring something under her breath which made Penny standstill and unable to move, "You are my daughter yet you are so slow. To blurt out what you find after your memories return to only be caught again. Don't worry. I will make sure to take care of you as I have been doing. You don't have to remember the bad dreams."
"No," Penny whispered in an alarmed tone, "Don't-" she could feel the panic begin to trickle up her nerves which were climbing up.
"Shh," her mother patted her head. Moving her hand gently as Penny remembered the last time her mother had beaten her, "You don't have to remember the bad dreams. My good daughter, you have to listen to me but you never do."
"Mama, please, don't do this," she uttered the words as her mother continued to pat her head, "I am still your daughter," she said looking in horror on her face.
"I know, dear. But if you really were, you would have told me that someone came to visit you today. Didn't they?" how did she know? "You didn't tell me and instead hid it from me. I feel hurt and betrayed. Every time I fix you up, it's like you want to continue to be broken. Why Penny?"
"Why did you hide?" Penny returned her answer with a question, "We are not humans, we are witches. You lied and hid it."
"This is what I meant. Running your mouth without listening to me. Let's hope this time you listen, okay?" and suddenly her mother banged her head against the wall with a force that turned Penny unconscious. When the next day arrived, as usual, Penny couldn't recollect as to what happened the previous day.
When asked, her mother called it to be her episodes where she often fainted due to her weak health. Unfortunately, where the element bearer stood in the forest waiting for Penelope to turn back, the girl had no memory and the element bearer didn't come looking for her.
When Penny finally woke up back in Delcrov's mansion, she stared at the ceiling. Her chest feeling lighter yet heavy at the same time. Her mother had been tampering with her mind over and over again until she felt she was the obedient child.
Back then she loved her mother. She cherished her only family member but not anymore. Her memories were coming back, trying to complete the blanks which she had only come to notice.
Damien was right about something. At one point she would have to take a stand for herself against her mother. It wasn't that she hadn't in the past. Her questions which were asked to her mother in the past had been erased. Any form of resistance had been removed to the point where she believed every lie that her mother spoke. She tried remembering the day when this had happened. It wasn't an old memory but one which was recent as it felt fresh where she could grasp on the details better. It was a few days before her mother decided to fake her sickness.
Going to move her hand she found it to be wrapped in Damien's hand who was lying next to her in the bed. Upon her hand movement, his eyes opened.
"Bad dream?" he asked.